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Title: Convert to Standard Currency fees too high, could affect adoption? Post by: CCCMikey on March 18, 2011, 12:29:33 AM Hi :)
I think there might be a problem with adoption because of the relatively high fees people are charging to transfer from traditional currency to BitCoins and back. I suspect that much of it is due to PayPal fees, etc; but it could go against the grain of people if they think "Yay. BitCoins. No Fees." but then find that they have to pay fees to get traditional money in and out. On the other hand, I don't know of a solution. I guess all I can do is encourage people providing those services to please try to do it at the lowest reasonable cost you can. What do you think? Title: Re: Convert to Standard Currency fees too high, could affect adoption? Post by: genjix on March 18, 2011, 12:53:20 AM http://britcoin.co.uk/
No fees. Title: Re: Convert to Standard Currency fees too high, could affect adoption? Post by: mndrix on March 18, 2011, 03:03:05 AM I suspect that much of it is due to PayPal fees, etc; but it could go against the grain of people if they think "Yay. BitCoins. No Fees." but then find that they have to pay fees to get traditional money in and out. At least in my case (CoinPal), PayPal's fees and the associated fraud rates are the dominant factor. I pass through fee decreases when I get them, but they're infrequent and small. I do what I can to reduce the fraud costs, but the service is still young enough that many PayPal payments aren't "mature" yet and fraud continues to trickle in. Quote On the other hand, I don't know of a solution. I guess all I can do is encourage people providing those services to please try to do it at the lowest reasonable cost you can. Selling goods and services can earn you Bitcoins with lower/zero nominal fees, but it requires substantial time investment to build the service, build trust, provide customer service, etc. From a strictly monetary perspective, that investment can make the fees look downright cheap. Of course, creating is way more fun than buying and that counts for a lot :) Title: Re: Convert to Standard Currency fees too high, could affect adoption? Post by: FreeMoney on March 18, 2011, 03:12:27 AM Hi :) I think there might be a problem with adoption because of the relatively high fees people are charging to transfer from traditional currency to BitCoins and back. I suspect that much of it is due to PayPal fees, etc; but it could go against the grain of people if they think "Yay. BitCoins. No Fees." but then find that they have to pay fees to get traditional money in and out. On the other hand, I don't know of a solution. I guess all I can do is encourage people providing those services to please try to do it at the lowest reasonable cost you can. What do you think? Sounds like a problem with traditional money. Maybe people will abandon that. Title: Re: Convert to Standard Currency fees too high, could affect adoption? Post by: CCCMikey on March 18, 2011, 04:37:08 AM Thanks for your thoughts :)
Britcoin looks interesting, albeit not in my native currency. Will look into it. mndrix's service is good - I've used it a few times. (CoinPal) Having a relationship with PayPal must be a Payn at times I would imagine, with the potential for chargebacks, etc. In Australia at least it seems that going via PayPal is the only way to play the BitCoin game, which is why there are the fees. I guess for many other non-US / British people they would have the same issue. As such it's probably harder to market here. Cheers, Mike. Title: Re: Convert to Standard Currency fees too high, could affect adoption? Post by: FreeMoney on March 18, 2011, 04:49:22 AM I would contact Noagendamarket about what's happening in Aus.
Title: Re: Convert to Standard Currency fees too high, could affect adoption? Post by: Anonymous on March 18, 2011, 11:00:57 AM Australia needs a market maker. Untill then we are stuck paying paypal fees.
The other issue is that currency conversion is required either to USD or Euro. It also doesnt help when paypal shuts down one of your main sources of buying bitcoins. Title: Re: Convert to Standard Currency fees too high, could affect adoption? Post by: genjix on March 18, 2011, 11:11:58 AM Australia needs a market maker. Untill then we are stuck paying paypal fees. The other issue is that currency conversion is required either to USD or Euro. It also doesnt help when paypal shuts down one of your main sources of buying bitcoins. Here's the source code, http://gitorious.org/intersango/master/trees/master Everything's free. Go nuts. Title: Re: Convert to Standard Currency fees too high, could affect adoption? Post by: LMGTFY on March 18, 2011, 11:26:32 AM In Australia at least it seems that going via PayPal is the only way to play the BitCoin game, which is why there are the fees. I guess for many other non-US / British people they would have the same issue. As such it's probably harder to market here. There's always bitcoin-otc.com (http://bitcoin-otc.com). I've done BTC -> GBP that way recently (britcoin.co.uk being a very, very recent innovation). I'd be surprised if there wasn't some interest in BTC <-> AUD on bitcoin-otc, given the apparent numbers of Aussie bitcoiners on this forum.(Come to think of it, I'm sure I've seen someone here offering a BTC <-> AUD service... BTC -> AUD via various banks including Westpac, and AUD -> BTC via a local/regional/state bank). Edit: bitcoinmarket.com (https://bitcoinmarket.com/) does BTC <-> AUD. (via: noagendamarket (http://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=4504.msg67168#msg67168)). Title: Re: Convert to Standard Currency fees too high, could affect adoption? Post by: Anonymous on March 18, 2011, 12:38:54 PM In Australia at least it seems that going via PayPal is the only way to play the BitCoin game, which is why there are the fees. I guess for many other non-US / British people they would have the same issue. As such it's probably harder to market here. There's always bitcoin-otc.com (http://bitcoin-otc.com). I've done BTC -> GBP that way recently (britcoin.co.uk being a very, very recent innovation). I'd be surprised if there wasn't some interest in BTC <-> AUD on bitcoin-otc, given the apparent numbers of Aussie bitcoiners on this forum.(Come to think of it, I'm sure I've seen someone here offering a BTC <-> AUD service... BTC -> AUD via various banks including Westpac, and AUD -> BTC via a local/regional/state bank). Edit: bitcoinmarket.com (https://bitcoinmarket.com/) does BTC <-> AUD. (via: noagendamarket (http://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=4504.msg67168#msg67168)). Ive done a few transactions to AUD . Mostly I buy amazon cards for people and sell the bitcoins received to Aussies for bank deposits because thats the easiest way outside of paypal to do it. I dont keep stockpiles of them for different reasons which also includes cash flow. So its like building a car where the parts are ordered only when an order comes in ie "just in time" bitcoin sales. I had someones mum ring up the other day wanting bitcoins which was a shock . That phonecall prompted me to setup http://bitcoin.com.au (http://bitcoin.com.au) to at least give aussies a resource to build from. I kinda feel like jonny appleseed spreading bitcoin seeds all over australia in the hope it takes off one day. If you google bitcoin+australia the results are mostly threads I created or posted in. I found one place in Aus selling goods for bitcoin I didnt even realise - http://macexperts.com.au/shop/index.php?route=common/home (http://macexperts.com.au/shop/index.php?route=common/home) their shopping cart interface is quite nice. Seeing gst in bitcoins is a bit sad though :( |